M A I N   N E W S

Hand over Ulfa chief, BSF tells Bangla Rifles
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 12
India today refused to accept Bangaldesh’s denial on United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) chief Paresh Barua’s presence there and insisted that he along with other Indian insurgent leaders were hiding there and be handed over to it as a gesture in reciprocal.

While making this demand at the end of the five-day long Border Coordination Conference between the two countries, the Border Security Force (BSF) handed over to the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) a revised list of 117 camps of northeast Indian insurgent groups in Bangladesh.

“We have given to the BDR a list of 117 terrorist camps currently operating in Bangladesh,” Director General of the BSF A.K. Mitra said at a joint press conference here with the BDR Director General, Major-General Shakil Ahmed after the Border Coordination Conference.

Sources in the BSF said India had recently handed over seven wanted Bangladeshi criminals to the Bangladesh authorities.

Major-General Shakil Ahmed, however, said Barua was no longer in Bangladesh, implicitly admitting for the first time about his presence there earlier. “Paresh Barua is no longer staying in Bangladesh. We don’t harbour any Indian terrorist or criminal in our territory. If we find Indian criminals staying in Bangladesh, we will be ready to hand them over to the Indian authorities. Terrorists and insurgency in the northeast are a threat to Bangladesh also,” the BDR Director General told media persons.

The Joint Record of Discussions (JRD) was signed here by A.K. Mitra and Major-General Shakil Ahmed.

Barua is spearheading the Ulfa fight for a separate homeland in Assam.

Last year the BSF, which guards a 4,095.7 km border - 2,979 km on land and 1,116 km along rivers - had given its counterpart a list of 141 militant camps operating in the neighbouring country.

Asked about the possibility of extraditing Ulfa general secretary Anup Chetia, at present lodged in a Dhaka jail, Major-General Ahmed said the countries did not share an extradition treaty and Chetia was still facing trial in Bangladeshi courts.